This Spartacus badass reveals how she stays fit for her role, who her secret Hollywood crush is, and why women love men with rough hands.

Ellen Hollman, 29, plays vixen Saxa on the STARZ original series Spartacus, and surprisingly, she isn't that different from her feisty, tough-girl character. (Case in point: Hollman does all her own stunts.) The third and final season of the show, War of the Damned, premiered January 25th. If you've caught it you know there are some pretty epic and bloody battle scenes, which include plenty of hot female fighters kicking serious ass. Hollman tells us all, including the surprisingly simple ingredients of a killer date—whether or not she’d be up for some role playing after.

Photo by Joe DeAngelis

STARZ

Do you feel a connection to your character in Spartacus?

Saxa is described as "a tenacious, vivacious force to be reckoned with." We're practically twins...minus the whole rebel-savage-fighting-an-epic-battle-everyday kind of thing.

Photo Courtesy of STARZ

STARZ

What's your workout secret to getting those rock hard abs of Saxa?

Aside from a hell of a lot of core work with MMA and knife fighting, I recently discovered hot yoga mixed with ballet and weights. That combo calls for a little bit of grace, a lot of sweat, and a few occasional tears.

Photo Courtesy of STARZ

Joe DeAngelis

What's your favorite part of a guy's body and why?

You can tell a lot about a man from his hands. If they don't have any scars or calluses on them, you might as well assume they cry at romantic comedy films, too.

Photo by Joe DeAngelis

Joe DeAngelis

What's your favorite part of your body and why?

I have a love/hate relationship with my bum. From being a sprinter most my life, it's accrued a decent amount of muscle. It's a pain to find jeans that fit my skinny legs and my booty, but on the bright side I could outrun a cheetah if I needed to.

Photo by JSquared Photography

Joe DeAngelis

What's your favorite way to stay fit?

By mixing it up. You'll never find me in a gym. Anything that's slightly dangerous and gets the heart rate going is my kind of workout. I do all my own stunts for the show, so I need to kick it up to an extreme level in order to sustain 14-hour shoot days, seven months in a row.

Photo by Joe DeAngelis

Joe DeAngelis

Is it okay for guys to hit on you at the gym?

No, just follow me out into the parking lot, find out where I live, and hang out in my backyard tree instead — that's far less creepy.

Photo by Joe DeAngelis

Joe DeAngelis

Who in Hollywood would you most like to do a love scene with?

Mike Row from Dirty Jobs is my secret crush. He can recite Shakespeare and shovel roadkill into a bucket at the same time—that's my kind of man.

Photo by Joe DeAngelis

Joe DeAngelis

What's the best way for a guy to attract your interest?

Humor. If a guy can laugh at himself and make me crack up? It's game on.

Photo by Joe DeAngelis

Joe DeAngelis

Would you ever role-play in the bedroom as your Spartacus character?

Saxa's feistiness, dominance, and loincloth skirt would be pretty hot, but I'd probably leave the knives out of it. That's a whole other level of crazy.